Cuomo and de Blasio Agree on Dire Budget Warnings & NYC-DSA Endorses Tiffany Cabán for Queens DA

Local News:

• Weeks after revealing his budget, Gov. Cuomo announced that State tax receipts were $2.3 billion lower than anticipated, necessitating significant changes to the plan. Cuomo blamed the Trump tax cuts, which capped State and Local Tax deductions, encouraging wealthy people to change residency, for the shortfall. “God forbid the rich leave,” he said.

• New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced his preliminary 2020 budget also warning of potential shortfalls and a need for cutbacks.

• State Senator Michael Gianaris, who has been a prominent critic of the Amazon deal, was named to the Public Authorities Control Board, which has oversight over development deals. Gov. Cuomo must approve of the appointment.

• The controversial Brooklyn-Queens Connector (BQX), once thought to be dead, was seemingly given new life after the city awarded a $7.2M contract to conduct an Environmental Impact Study. Following the study, the project would require City Council approval to proceed.

• After a cyclist was killed in a hit-and-run near Times Square, the NYPD began issuing summonses to cyclists for not wearing helmets, even though that’s not against the law.

• Evictions fell by 14% in New York City in 2018 which the de Blasio Administration is crediting to its program to provide free legal counsel to low income residents via the Right to Counsel law.

• The State Legislature passed a bill preemptively banning offshore oil and gas drilling in New York State in case the federal government seek to expand it to the region.

• A Gotham Gazette article outlines the various state level Green New Deal proposals being forwarded by legislators in New York.

• The Metropolitan Republican Club, a central hub for Upper East Side’s sizable Republican base, has elected Ian Reilly as its president. Reilly, a former staffer to Marty Golden, notably invited the Proud Boys to speak at the club last year and also recently served as an advisor to a German neo-Nazi party.

• Though power and heat has been restored at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center hearings and a visit from a federal court judge have spotlighted an ongoing humanitarian crisis at the facility.

• 13,000 nurses at New York Presbyterian, Montefiore, and Mount Sinai hospitals are preparing to strike as they attempt to negotiate fair patient-to-nurse ratios in their new contracts. This Wednesday, February 13, NYSNA will be holding informational pickets at the three hospital centers and will consider a strike authorization vote shortly after.

Elections:

• NYC-DSA has endorsed Tiffany Cabån for Queens District Attorney.

• With many of the candidates for Queens DA positioning themselves as reformers, The Indypendent took a look at how dedicated to reform they might actually be. The report includes significant discussion of Tiffany Cabán’s campaign and pre-CLC vote speculation about NYC-DSA’s endorsement deliberations.

• Council Member and homophobe Rubén Díaz (District 18, Castle Hill) claimed that the “homosexual community” controls the City Council and refused to apologize for his statement after widespread censure. Díaz also mentioned that Bronx Democratic Chair Marcos Crespo and his son (Bronx Borough President and 2021 mayoral contender Rubén Jr.) worked together with Speaker Corey Johnson last year to elevate him to a key committee chairmanship even though his brazen homophobia had been well known for years.

• Ten of the 17 candidates for Public Advocate participated in the first televised debate, where the Amazon deal took up a large amount of time – only Republican Eric Ulrich came out in support of the deal.